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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #284 Saturday, December 26, 2009 |
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| Longer Perspectives | |
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| November 2010: Too little, too late |
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· 12/27/2009 12:07:05 PM PST · · Posted by American Dream 246 · · 15 replies · · 324+ views · · American Thinker · · 12/27/09 · · John Hunt · |
If conservatives wait until November 2010 we will be: Too little, too late. This is why: The nominations and primary races are shaping up right now. We must nominate conservatives for the November 2010 vote, right now. Deadlines approach soon. GOP county and state organizations are working right now to get their ducks in a row for the 2010 election - and beyond. When conservatives sit back and "wait" - we're saddled with candidates like Dede Scozzafava of the recent RINO insider fiasco in New York, not to mention certain lack-luster candidates for the presidency. Let's look at GOP county... |
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| Let's Have Jerusalem | |
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| Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls? |
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· 12/19/2009 6:02:29 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 62 replies · · 1,003+ views · · Smithsonian magazine · · January 2010 · · Andrew Lawler · |
For his part, Peleg believes Qumran went through several distinct stages. As the morning heat mounts, he leads me up a steep ridge above the site, where a channel hewn into the rock brought water into the settlement. From our high perch, he points out the foundations of a massive tower that once commanded a fine view of the sea to the east toward today's Jordan. "Qumran was a military post around 100 B.C.," he says. "We are one day from Jerusalem, and it fortified the northeast shore of the Dead Sea." Other forts from this era are scattered among... |
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| Nazareth | |
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| Israel: first Jesus-era house found in Nazareth |
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· 12/21/2009 5:51:57 AM PST · · Posted by NYer · · 21 replies · · 714+ views · · Google · · December 21, 2009 · |
Israeli archaeologists say they have uncovered remains of the first dwelling in Nazareth that can be dated back to the time of Jesus. They say the find sheds a new light on what Nazareth might have been like in Jesus' time -- probably a small hamlet with about 50 houses populated by poor Jews. Archaeologist Yardena Alexandre of the Israel Antiquities Authority says remains of a wall, a hideout and a cistern were found after builders dug up a convent courtyard. Alexandre said Monday archeologists also found clay and chalk vessels used by Galilean Jews of the time... |
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| First Jesus-era house discovered in Nazareth |
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· 12/21/2009 1:45:20 PM PST · · Posted by My Favorite Headache · · 23 replies · · 778+ views · · AT&T Newswire · · 12/21/2009 · |
Just in time for Christmas, archaeologists on Monday unveiled what may have been the home of one of Jesus' childhood neighbors. The humble dwelling is the first dating to the era of Jesus to be discovered in Nazareth, then a hamlet of around 50 impoverished Jewish families where Jesus spent his boyhood. Archaeologists and present-day residents of Nazareth imagined Jesus as a youngster, playing with other children in the isolated village, not far from the spot where the Archangel Gabriel revealed to Mary that she would give birth to the boy. Today the ornate Basilica of the Annunciation marks that... |
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| Uncovered days before Christmas: Remains of a home in Nazareth that Jesus would have known |
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· 12/21/2009 7:40:42 PM PST · · Posted by bogusname · · 27 replies · · 693+ views · · Daily Mail UK · · December 21, 2009 · · Mail Foreign Service · |
The remains of the first dwelling in Nazareth that has been dated back to the time of Jesus have been unveiled - just days before Christmas. The find that could shed new light on what the hamlet was like during the period the New Testament says Jesus lived there as a boy, Israeli archaeologists said. The dwelling and older discoveries of nearby tombs in burial caves suggest that Nazareth was an out-of-the-way hamlet of around 50 houses on a patch of about four acres. It was evidently populated by Jews of modest means who kept camouflaged grottos to hide from... |
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| Star of the East | |
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| The Magi and the Star |
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· 12/21/2009 3:31:25 PM PST · · Posted by NYer · · 16 replies · · 466+ views · · Catholic World Report · · December 21, 2009 · · Michael J. Miller · |
Many balk at this element of the Nativity story, but historical and astronomical evidence tends to corroborate it · During a 2007 BBC radio interview, the archbishop of Canterbury deconstructed elements of the Nativity story. "Stars simply don't behave like that," Rowan Williams said. Asked about the existence of three wise men, he replied, "It works quite well as legend."But years ago Father Walter Brandm¸ller, president of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, published an essay applying the historical-critical method to the question of the Nativity story. (The essay is reprinted without cumbersome footnotes in Light and Shadows: Church... |
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| Faith and Philosophy | |
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| From Roman to Third Reich: anti-Semitism has long history |
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· 12/21/2009 8:40:58 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 14 replies · · 358+ views · · www.nrc.nl · · Monday, December 21, 2009 · · Dirk Vlasbom · |
In 388 AD a Christian mob led by a local bishop destroyed the synagogue of Callinicum, a Greco-Roman city in northern Syria. The attack angered emperor Theodosius I, who had declared Christianity the religion of the Roman state just eight years earlier. As the Jewish community enjoyed a protected status under Roman laws, he ordered the synagogue be rebuilt be rebuilt at bishop's expense. This triggered Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, to write the emperor a letter defending the obliteration of the Jewish temple. What could possibly be wrong with destroying a "house of betrayal and godlessness" where Christ's name... |
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| Dendrochronology | |
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| Ancient Tree (Almost) Older Than Dirt [ 5,000 to 30,000 years old ] |
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· 12/23/2009 6:46:09 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 21 replies · · 1,433+ views · · Discovery · · Wednesday, December 23, 2009 · · Michael Reilly · |
The entire grove of trunks is in fact one plant, a newly discovered Palmer's oak (Quercus palmeri) that researchers estimate is over 13,000 years old, making it one of the oldest plants on Earth... none of its 70 stems get more than a few feet tall, and it grows in a boulder pile that doubles as shelter from the area's buffeting winds. At first glance, the scientists thought it was an isolated grove of trees, but something didn't add up: None of them produced fertile acorns, so the plants couldn't reproduce... Genetic analysis confirmed their suspicion. Each of the 70... |
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| PreColumbian, Clovis, PreClovis | |
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| Rock Art Redefines 'Ancient' [ China Lake CA petroglyphs 16K old ] |
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· 12/19/2009 5:21:27 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 18 replies · · 484+ views · · New York Times · · December 18, 2009 · · David Page · |
With us rode David S. Whitley, an archaeologist and expert on prehistoric rock art and iconographic interpretation. Having visited hundreds of sites all over the world, including Lascaux and Chauvet in France and the CÙa Valley in Portugal, he believes the Coso Petroglyphs to be one of the most important rock art sites on earth. Mr. Whitley estimated that there may be as many as 100,000 images carved into the dark volcanic canyons above the China Lake basin, some as old as 12,000 to 16,000 years, others as recent as the mid-20th century. Floating across a landscape strewn with more... |
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| Epigraphy and Language | |
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| Tech anthropologist works to save dying Comanche language |
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· 12/19/2009 6:35:04 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 46 replies · · 610+ views · · Lubbock Online · · Friday, December 18, 2009 · · Matthew Mcgowan · |
The language of the Comanche people, a lifeline of its culture, is fading fast. Its muted vowels and sapient cadence once echoed throughout the fenceless grasslands of the South Plains, but today it can muster barely a whisper... With a recent $215,000 two-year grant from the Administration for Native Americans, they'll shoulder the task on modern technology and a new generation of Comanche students eager to learn their ancestral tongue. "Its important for any language to have its say, to be documented," Williams said. "It's interesting for Comanche because it rose to dominance on the South Plains so quickly, then... |
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| Climate | |
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| UCSB Archaeologist Disputes Common Belief About Collapse of Maya Civilization |
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· 12/19/2009 7:43:25 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 46 replies · · 931+ views · · University of California, Santa Barbara · · December 9, 2009 · · Journal of Ethnobiology UCSB, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara · |
...Anabel Ford, an archaeologist at UC Santa Barbara and director of the university's MesoAmerican Research Center, suggests... that the forest gardens cultivated by the Maya demonstrate their great appreciation for the environment. Her findings are published in the current issue of the Journal of Ethnobiology in an article titled "Origins of the Maya Forest Garden: Maya Resource Management." ...The ancient Maya, who farmed without draft animals or plows, and had access only to stone tools and fire, followed what Ford calls the "milpa cycle." It is an ancient land use system by which a closed canopy forest is transformed into... |
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| Ancient Mayans Likely Had Fountains and Toilets |
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· 12/23/2009 6:54:38 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 42 replies · · 566+ views · · LiveScience · · Wednesday, December 23, 2009 · · Charles Q. Choi · |
The ancient Mayans may have had enough engineering know-how to master running water, creating fountains and even toilets by controlling water pressure, scientists now suggest... Scientists investigated the Mayan center at Palenque in Chiapas, Mexico. At its height, this major site, inhabited from roughly 100 to 800 AD, had some 1,500 structures -- residences, palaces, and temples -- holding some 6,000 inhabitants under a series of powerful rulers. The center at Palenque also had what was arguably the most unique and intricate system of water management known anywhere in the Maya lowlands. These involved elaborate subterranean aqueducts to deal with... |
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| Neandertal / Neanderthal | |
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| 2010 preview: Arise, Neanderthal brother |
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· 12/19/2009 5:35:06 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 25 replies · · 486+ views · · New Scientist · · Thursday, December 17, 2009 · · Ewen Callaway · |
Do we have a little Neanderthal in us? That's not a reference to your behaviour at the end-of-year office party, but to the genes of our extinct cousins. With the imminent publication of the genome sequence of Homo neanderthalis, that question may finally be answered. So far no one has uncovered evidence of any cross-species romps -- at least none that left a trace in our DNA. The 3-billion-nucleotide Neanderthal genome is our best chance yet of finding out. Whether they did or didn't will make the headlines next year, but the importance of the Neanderthal genome reaches much further.... |
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| Diet and Cuisine | |
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| Flintstone's kitchen shown to be accurate for REAL stoneagers |
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· 12/20/2009 7:04:45 AM PST · · Posted by nutsonthebus · · 22 replies · · 515+ views · · http://www.daveweinbaum.com · |
In a stone-age version of "Iron Chef," early humans were dividing their living spaces into kitchens and work areas much earlier than previously thought, a new study found. So rather than cooking and eating in the same area where they snoozed, early humans demarcated such living quarters. Archaeologists discovered evidence of this coordinated living at a hominid site at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel from about 800,000 years ago. Scientists aren't sure exactly who lived there, but it predates the appearance of modern humans, so it was likely a human ancestor such as Homo erectus. |
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| Africa | |
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| Pass the Sorghum, Caveman |
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· 12/19/2009 6:50:32 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 30 replies · · 555+ views · · ScienceNOW Daily News · · Thursday, December 17, 2009 · · Cassandra Willyard · |
Credit: Daniel Georg Dˆhne/Wikimedia Conventional wisdom holds that early humans survived on a diet of meat, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and the occasional tuber. Our love affair with cereals supposedly came later, about 20,000 years ago. But a new study hints that wild cereals were part of the human diet more than 100,000 years ago. Making cereals palatable is hard work. They have to be roasted in a fire or pounded into flour and cooked. Because the process is energy-intensive and requires specialized tools, many archeologists assumed that humans didn't begin consuming mass quantities of cereal until the advent of... |
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| Anatolia | |
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| Ancient seed sprouts plant from the past [ 4000 year old lentils ] |
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· 12/19/2009 8:13:11 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 34 replies · · 672+ views · · Hurriyet Daily News · · Wednesday, December 16, 2009 · · Kutahya: Radikal · |
A 4,000-year-old lentil seed unearthed in an archeological excavation has successfully sprouted after being planted. Project leader and Dumlupınar University archeology faculty Professor Nejat Bilgen said they found the seeds during an excavation undertaken last year in Kütahya province. Bilgen said a layer from the container in which they found the seeds was determined to be from the middle bronze age. He said his team found many seeds, but most had been burnt, adding that they had failed to make the others turn green before the recent success. The excavation team believes they found a silo because there were many... |
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| Megaliths and Archaeoastronomy | |
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| Archaeologists to explore feasting habits of ancient builders of Stonehenge |
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· 12/23/2009 6:29:02 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 5 replies · · 177+ views · · Culture24 · · Monday, December 21, 2009 · · Culture24 Staff · |
The team who worked on the Stonehenge Riverside Project in 2009 are to return to their findings to explain the eating habits of the people who built and worshipped at the stone circle over four thousand years ago... the new 'Feeding Stonehenge' project will analyse a range of materials including cattle bones and plant residue... Initial research suggests the animals were brought considerable distances to the ceremonial site.. The original Stonehenge Riverside project, which strengthened the idea that nearby Durrington Walls was part of the Stonehenge complex, yielded a surprisingly wide range of material ranging from ancient tools to animal... |
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| Sámi, How We Love Ya, How We Love Ya | |
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| Before the Fall of the Reindeer People |
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· 12/21/2009 8:32:22 AM PST · · Posted by BGHater · · 41 replies · · 837+ views · · Environmental Graffiti · · 13 Dec 2009 · · EG · |
A Sámi (Lapp) family in Norway around 1900 -- Photo: Library of Congress -- In the freezing far northern reaches of Europe live an indigenous, semi-nomadic people of fishermen, fur trappers and reindeer herders. Like a thin but stubborn sheet of ice, these people have inhabited Sápmi, a large but sparsely populated area covering parts of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia's Kola Peninsula for thousands of years. They remained closely tied to nature throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, as their clothes, dwellings and other trappings of culture bear witness -- here beautifully frozen in film. These people are the Sámi... |
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| Helix, Make Mine a Double | |
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| Genetic study clarifies African and African-American ancestry |
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· 12/21/2009 12:41:48 PM PST · · Posted by Pharmboy · · 20 replies · · 919+ views · · University of Pennsylvania · · 21-Dec-2009 · · Jordan Reese · |
The University of PennsylvaniaSarah Tishkoff, professor in the departments of genetics and biology at University of Pennsylvania, is collecting samples in Africa. Collaboration by University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University PHILADELPHIA -- People who identify as African-American may be as little as 1 percent West African or as much as 99 percent, just one finding of a large-scale, genome-wide study of African and African-American ancestry released today. An international research team led by scientists from the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University has collected and analyzed genotype data from 365 African-Americans, 203 people from 12 West African populations and... |
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| Human genomics: The genome finishers (That pdf link is restricted access.) |
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· 12/20/2009 2:57:19 PM PST · · Posted by neverdem · · 5 replies · · 223+ views · · Nature News · · 16 December 2009 · · Elie Dolgin · |
Dedicated scientists are working hard to close the gaps, fix the errors and finally complete the human genome sequence. ...Deanna Church has few distractions from the job that lies before her. On her computer sit 888 open 'tickets', or outstanding problems with the human genome sequence. Although that number fluctuates, it's a not-so-subtle reminder that she and her team at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) have a long way to go... --snip-- By April 2003, the sequencing had surpassed the international project's technical definition of completion -- the sequence contained fewer than 1 error per 10,000 nucleotides and... |
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| Catastrophism and Astronomy | |
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| 'Fried Egg' may be impact crater |
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· 12/20/2009 9:37:16 AM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 36 replies · · 823+ views · · BBC News · · Friday, December 18, 2009 · · Jonathan Amos · |
Portuguese scientists have found a depression on the Atlantic Ocean floor they think may be an impact crater. The roughly circular, 6km-wide hollow has a broad central dome and has been dubbed the "Fried Egg" because of its distinctive shape. It was detected to the south of the Azores Islands during a survey to map the continental shelf. If the Fried Egg was made by a space impactor, the collision probably took place within the past 17 million years... It lies under 2km of water about 150km from the Azores archipelago. The depressed ring sits roughly 110m below the... |
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| Whale Meat Again, Don't Know How, Don't Know When | |
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| Early Whale Was Dwarf Mud-Sucker, Fossils Hint |
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· 12/23/2009 7:28:17 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 13 replies · · 261+ views · · National Geographic News · · Wednesday, December 23, 2009 · · Carolyn Barry · |
An ancient dwarf whale unearthed in southeastern Australia captured its prey by slurping up mouthfuls of mud, a new study says. The fossil whale, thought to between 25 and 28 million years old, hints that mud sucking might have been a precursor to the filter feeding used by today's baleen whales... The newfound fossil whale, which measures just nine feet (three meters) long, shares the same distinct jaw and skull structures as today's baleens. But the tiny whale also had teeth, said study author Erich Fitzgerald, a paleontologist at Museum Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. The odd combination suggests that the... |
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| Dinosaurs | |
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| Poisonous prehistoric 'raptor' discovered by research team from Kansas and China |
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· 12/21/2009 4:02:57 PM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 19 replies · · 520+ views · · University of Kansas · · Dec 21, 2009 · · Unknown · |
This is the first report of venom in the lineage that leads to modern birds -- A group of University of Kansas researchers working with Chinese colleagues have discovered a venomous, birdlike raptor that thrived some 128 million years ago in China. This is the first report of venom in the lineage that leads to modern birds. "This thing is a venomous bird for all intents and purposes," said Larry Martin, KU professor and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Institute. "It was a real shock to us and we made a special trip... |
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| Tool Time | |
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| Chimps Master First Step in Controlling Fire |
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· 12/26/2009 9:46:45 AM PST · · Posted by JoeProBono · · 38 replies · · 749+ views · · livescience · · 21 December 2009 · · Charles Q. Choi · |
Chimps remain cool under fire, possessing a near human ability to predict how wildfires spread and react accordingly. This newfound capability of chimpanzees to understand flames might shed light on when and how our distant ancestors first learned to control fire, scientists now suggest. Primatologist Jill Pruetz at Iowa State University in Ames was observing savanna chimpanzees in Senegal in 2006 as people were setting wildfires, an annual tradition that clears land and aids hunting. Most areas within the chimpanzees' home range are burned to some degree. "It was the end of the dry season, so the fires burn so... |
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| Epidemics, Pandemics, Plagues, the Sniffles | |
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| Abandoned Bones Suggest TB Wiped Out Leprosy In Battle Of Killer Diseases |
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· 12/23/2009 8:01:21 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 10 replies · · 441+ views · · ScienceDaily · · February 19, 2005 · · University College London · |
The spread of tuberculosis may have killed off leprosy in Europe in the Middle Ages, according to research published in the latest issue of the Royal Society Proceedings B. A collaborative study led by University College London (UCL) scientists, following the discovery of a shrouded body in a sealed chamber overlooked by tomb robbers, found evidence of both diseases in a range of archaeological remains dating from the 1st to the 15th centuries. An initial examination of the body, currently under analysis in Israel, revealed signs of co-infection of TB and leprosy in the bone tissue. The collaborative team, led... |
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| Extremophiles | |
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| Yellowstone Discovery Bodes Well for Finding Evidence of Life on Mars |
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· 04/20/2005 2:04:30 PM PDT · · Posted by PatrickHenry · · 37 replies · · 1,111+ views · · National Science Foundation · · 20 April 2005 · · Cheryl L. Dybas and Jim Scott · |
Researchers say a bizarre group of microbes found living inside rocks in an inhospitable geothermal environment at Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park could provide tantalizing new clues about ancient life on Earth and help steer the hunt for evidence of life on Mars. University of Colorado at Boulder (CU-Boulder) scientists Jeffrey Walker, John Spear and Norman Pace report the finding in the April 21 issue of the journal Nature. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and NASA. The CU-Boulder research team reported that the microbes were discovered in the pores of rocks in a highly acidic environment with... |
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| The Revolution | |
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| Happy Clinton Impeachment Day 2009! Impeachment is Forever |
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· 12/18/2009 9:03:50 PM PST · · Posted by kristinn · · 65 replies · · 1,157+ views · · Saturday, December 19, 2009 · · Kristinn · |
Top photo: Jim Robinson leads Free Republic's Clinton Impeachment Rally, aka March for Justice, Washington, D.C. -- October 31, 1998 -- Center: Washington Post front page, December 20, 1998 -- Bottom: AP/World Wide Photo -- For those who are unaware of Free Republic's history making in its early years, please know that Jim Robinson and the Freepers played a key role in getting Bill Clinton impeached. The impeachhment rally was broadcast live on C-SPAN (all four hours!) Founder of the D.C. Chapter of FreeRepublic.com, MrConfettiMan (who has since passed away) wrote his thoughts about the rally back then: Saturday, October 31st, The March for Justice -- I drove into Washington for... |
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| Myths of the American Revolution |
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· 12/19/2009 3:18:21 PM PST · · Posted by BGHater · · 43 replies · · 1,247+ views · · Smithsonian Magazine · · Jan 2010 · · John Ferling · |
A noted historian debunks the conventional wisdom about America's War of Independence We think we know the Revolutionary War. After all, the American Revolution and the war that accompanied it not only determined the nation we would become but also continue to define who we are. The Declaration of Independence, the Midnight Ride, Valley Forge -- the whole glorious chronicle of the colonists' rebellion against tyranny is in the American DNA. Often it is the Revolution that is a child's first encounter with history.Yet much of what we know is not entirely true. Perhaps more than any defining moment in American history,... |
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| Biology and Cryptobiology | |
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| Are there cougars in the Southwest Michigan? |
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· 12/21/2009 7:56:50 AM PST · · Posted by earlJam · · 127 replies · · 2,523+ views · · Kalamazoo Gazette · · 12/21/09 · |
Hundreds of people in Southwest Michigan claim to have seen cougars. Michigan Citizens for Cougar Recognition, a group started six years ago by local attorney and Van Buren County Commissioner Denise Noble, has catalogued nearly 200 cougar sightings in Allegan, Van Buren, Kalamazoo and St. Joseph counties. Add in Barry, Cass and Berrien counties, and total cougar sightings reported in Southwest Michigan jump to 412. Allegan County had the third highest number of reported cougar sightings in the state, with 62. Van Buren County came in fifth, with 58. Kalamazoo County was seventh in the state, with 54. Noble said... |
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| Pyramids in China | |
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| Mysterious Non-Egyptian Pyramids[China] |
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· 12/21/2009 6:53:31 AM PST · · Posted by BGHater · · 21 replies · · 881+ views · · DRB · · 20 Dec 2009 · · DRB · |
James Gaussman and the Jewelled Pyramid of China Egyptian pyramids? Sure, everyone knows about the ones at Giza - and a few aficionados might know about the 138 others (!) scattered around them. Mesoamerican pyramids? Okay, a lot of folks know about them, too -- or even that the great one at Cholula is considered to be the largest one in the world. (reconstruction of a typical Chinese pyramid - image via) But, unfortunately, not many people know that pyramids have come in other flavors as well, including the mysterious and legendary ones in China. (photo by Santha Falia, ;... |
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| Oh So Mysteriouso | |
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| Mystery of golden ratio explained |
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· 12/21/2009 3:53:49 AM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 55 replies · · 1,410+ views · · Duke University · · Dec 21, 2009 · · Unknown · |
DURHAM, N.C. -- The Egyptians supposedly used it to guide the construction the Pyramids. The architecture of ancient Athens is thought to have been based on it. Fictional Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon tried to unravel its mysteries in the novel The Da Vinci Code. "It" is the golden ratio, a geometric proportion that has been theorized to be the most aesthetically pleasing to the eye and has been the root of countless mysteries over the centuries. Now, a Duke University engineer has found it to be a compelling springboard to unify vision, thought and movement under a single law of... |
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| Glaciation and the Ice Ages | |
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| Antarctica- not always so cold and remote |
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· 12/18/2009 10:04:01 PM PST · · Posted by Yollopoliuhqui · · 22 replies · · 853+ views · · Various · · Peter Jupp · |
Antarctica not always so cold and remote.... Antarctica harbours bones of dinosaur sand petrified rain forests. Did continental-drift bring Antarctica to the poles...or was it a shift in the earth's axis that not only caused the death of the Mega fauna, but placed a massive ice sheet on the continent? In 1929, a group of historians found an amazing map drawn on a gazelle skin. Research showed that it was a genuine document drawn in 1513 by Piri Reis, a famous admiral of the Turkish fleet in the sixteenth century. His passion was cartography. His high rank within the Turkish... |
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| Middle Ages and Renaissance | |
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| Jesus-era leper sheds light on Turin shroud mystery |
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· 12/17/2009 4:57:12 AM PST · · Posted by bogusname · · 70 replies · · 1,121+ views · · Haaretz .com · · December 16, 2009 · · Haaretz Service · |
Israel experts said on Wednesday that a burial shroud known as the Turin shroud, assumed to be the type used to wrap the body of Jesus, did not actually originate from Jesus-era Jerusalem. The conclusion was based on excavation discoveries of a first-century C.E. shrouded man found in a tomb on the edge of the Old City of Jerusalem, which also revealed the earliest proven case of leprosy. Along with the DNA of the shrouded man, this was the first time that fragments of a burial shroud have been found from the time of Jesus in Jerusalem, which, unlike the... |
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| Thoroughly Modern Miscellany | |
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| The "Science' Mantra (Thomas Sowell) |
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· 12/21/2009 5:39:05 PM PST · · Posted by jazusamo · · 25 replies · · 1,058+ views · · Jewish World Review · · December 22, 2009 · · Thomas Sowell · |
Science is one of the great achievements of the human mind and the biggest reason why we live not only longer but more vigorously in our old age, in addition to all the ways in which it provides us with things that make life easier and more enjoyable. Like anything valuable, science has been seized upon by politicians and ideologues, and used to forward their own agendas. This started long ago, as far back as the 18th century, when the Marquis de Condorcet coined the term "social science" to describe various theories he favored. In the 19th century, Karl Marx... |
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| end of digest #284 20091226 | |
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· Saturday, December 26, 2009 · 34 topics · 2415871 to 2410988 · 733 members · |
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Saturday |
Welcome to the 284th issue. My apologies for the delay on this issue, but I had car trouble, was more or less stranded in the Dialup Puckerbrush (actually it's my favorite place to be, other than the bandwidth) without the usual data I need to edit up this thing. |
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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #285 Saturday, January 01, 2010 |
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| The Old Piano Roll Blues | |
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| The REAL History of Free Republic, 2009 Edition (c) |
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· 12/30/2009 6:17:52 AM PST · · Posted by Lazamataz · · 129 replies · · 1,746+ views · · Free Republic · · 12/30/2009 · · By Lazamataz · |
What did we all do before Free Republic? Well, it might surprise you to know there never was a time before Free Republic. And as good as the forum is now, it was much then. I remember the Good Old Days of Free Republic. It was the 1970's. You should have been on Free Republic back in the 1970's. It was all different back then. "Clinton's a liar" was named "Kennedy's a perv". Michael Rivero was posting a series debunking the moon landing hoax, and showing how Apollo 13 was likely crippled by a Soviet missile, not some 'center fuel... |
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| Prehistory and Origins | |
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| What Happened to the Hominids Who Were Smarter Than Us? [Apes with 150 IQ?] |
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· 12/31/2009 9:53:37 AM PST · · Posted by Fractal Trader · · 49 replies · · 1,377+ views · · Discover · · 28 December · · Gary Lynch and Richard Granger · |
In the autumn of 1913, two farmers were arguing about hominid skull fragments they had uncovered while digging a drainage ditch. The location was Boskop, a small town about 200 miles inland from the east coast of South Africa. These Afrikaner farmers, to their lasting credit, had the presence of mind to notice that there was something distinctly odd about the bones. They brought the find to Frederick W. Fitz Simons, director of the Port Elizabeth Museum, in a small town at the tip of South Africa. The scientific community of South Africa was small, and before long the skull... |
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| Helix, Make Mine a Double | |
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| DNA analysed from early European |
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· 01/01/2010 3:19:58 PM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 20 replies · · 421+ views · · BBC · · Jan 1, 2010 · · Paul Rincon · |
Scientists have analysed DNA extracted from the remains of a 30,000-year-old European hunter-gatherer. The researchers were able to assign the Kostenki individual to haplogroup "U2", which is relatively uncommon among modern populations. U2 appears to be scattered at low frequencies in populations from South and Western Asia, Europe and North Africa. Despite its rarity, the very presence of this haplogroup in today's Europeans suggests some continuity between Palaeolithic hunters and the continent's present-day inhabitants, argue the authors of the latest study. |
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| Using modern sequencing techniques to study ancient modern humans |
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· 12/31/2009 9:25:55 AM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 4 replies · · 200+ views · · Cell Press · · Dec 31, 2009 · · Unknown · |
DNA that is left in the remains of long-dead plants, animals, or humans allows a direct look into the history of evolution. So far, studies of this kind on ancestral members of our own species have been hampered by scientists' inability to distinguish the ancient DNA from modern-day human DNA contamination. Now, research by Svante Pääbo from The Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, published online on December 31st in Current Biology -- a Cell Press publication -- overcomes this hurdle and shows how it is possible to directly analyze DNA from a member of our own species who... |
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| Fertile Crescent | |
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| From Ur's Royal Tombs |
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· 12/30/2009 9:01:56 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 21 replies · · 283+ views · · Wall St Journal · · December 28, 2009 · · Julia M. Klein · |
Crammed into a single large gallery, the Penn Museum show -- filled with delicate cylinder seals and alabaster pots, and glittering strings of gold, carnelian and lapis lazuli beads -- is at once frustratingly old-fashioned and deliberately retro in its design. Musical selections from the expedition's record collection play in the background. The texts are well-written but long and somewhat dense. They are supplemented by archival and contemporary images of the site and computer terminals displaying the exhibition's Web site and other Web resources and offering visitors a chance to "live blog" about the show. |
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| Epigraphy and Language | |
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| Mayan glyphs detail priest's life, blood sacrifices |
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· 12/30/2009 8:53:47 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 14 replies · · 339+ views · · Yahoo! · · Monday, December 28, 2009 · · AFP · |
Experts are studying the first Mayan hieroglyphic script dealing with the life of a high priest, his blood sacrifices and acts of penance, Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said. The text consists of 260 glyphs carved into a series of seashell earrings and manta ray stingers found inside a burial urn. The urn, which also contained the remains of an important Maya priest, wrapped in bright red cloth, was uncovered during excavations 11 years ago in Comalcalco, in southeastern Tabasco state, the institute said in a statement. "It is the longest Maya hieroglyphic script ever found to... |
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| PreColumbian, Clovis, PreClovis | |
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| Honduran ruins predate Mayans |
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· 01/01/2010 2:32:32 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 9 replies · · 329+ views · · Tiscali · · May 13, 2003 (what's the rush?) · · Reuters · |
Ruins of a pre-Columbian city built before the rise of the Maya civilisation have been discovered in a remote region of eastern Honduras, the Institute of Anthropology and History says. The so-called City of Encounters, in the wilderness of Botaderos mountain about 120 miles northeast of the capital, includes vestiges of three rectangular plazas, various mounds and small stone-encrusted pillars. It appears to have been built in the pre-Classical or early Classical period between 300 B.C. and 300 A.D., said Mexican anthropologist Victor Heredia, an investigator for the institute. "It's a pre-Hispanic city, a complex site. It has a well-defined... |
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| China | |
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| China says discovers tomb of famed general Cao Cao |
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· 12/27/2009 4:19:23 AM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 31 replies · · 542+ views · · Reuters · · Dec 27, 2009 · · Reporting by Beijing Newsroom · · Writing by Lucy Hornby · · Editing by Sugita Katyal · |
Chinese archeologists have unearthed a large third-century tomb, which they say could be that of Cao Cao, the legendary politician and general famous throughout East Asia for his Machiavellian tactics. The tomb, discovered in Xigaoxue village near the ancient Chinese city of Anyang, Henan Province, has an epitaph and inscription that appear to refer to Cao Cao, Central China Television said on Sunday. A Chinese proverb, "speak of Cao Cao and he appears," is the equivalent of "speak of the devil" in English. |
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| Egypt | |
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| Threshold to Cleopatra's mausoleum discovered off Alexandria coast |
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· 01/01/2010 12:23:02 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 23 replies · · 671+ views · · Guardian · · Wednesday, December 23, 2009 · · Helena Smith · |
A team of Greek marine archaeologists who have spent years conducting underwater excavations off the coast of Alexandria in Egypt have unearthed a giant granite threshold to a door that they believe was once the entrance to a magnificent mausoleum that Cleopatra VII, queen of the Egyptians, had built for herself shortly before her death. They believe the 15-tonne antiquity would have held a seven metre-high door so heavy that it would have prevented the queen from consoling her Roman lover before he died, reputedly in 30BC... Tzalas believes the discovery of the threshold sheds new light on an element... |
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| Romans | |
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| Archaeological dig to reveal mystery Roman building in Chester |
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· 01/01/2010 10:44:59 AM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 11 replies · · 364+ views · · Chester Chronicle · · Thursday, December 24, 2009 · · unattributed · |
Archaeologists are investigating a mystery Roman building underneath the Dewa Roman Experience premises in the city centre. They will tunnel through the brickwork and sandstone blocks above the Roman foundations of the secret building and into the void behind... Archaeologist Mike Emery said: "It's something substantial but we don't know that is. It has been suggested it might be Roman hospital but no-one quite knows. We will be literally tunnelling into the dark." The Dewa Roman Experience, popular for school visits, already features exposed archaeological trenches from 1991 including remnants of the Roman fortress, plus Saxon and medieval remains including... |
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| Diet and Cuisine | |
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| Alcohol's Neolithic Origins: Brewing Up a Civilization |
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· 12/30/2009 9:14:41 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 20 replies · · 424+ views · · Der Spiegel · · Frank Thadeusz · |
Did our Neolithic ancestors turn to agriculture so that they could be sure of a tipple? US Archaeologist Patrick McGovern thinks so. The expert on identifying traces of alcohol in prehistoric sites reckons the thirst for a brew was enough of an incentive to start growing crops... Here is how the story likely began -- a prehistoric human picked up some dropped fruit from the ground and popped it unsuspectingly into his or her mouth. The first effect was nothing more than an agreeably bittersweet flavor spreading across the palate. But as alcohol entered the bloodstream, the brain started sending... |
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| Biology and Cryptobiology | |
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| World's Weirdest Fish? |
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· 12/28/2009 1:05:36 PM PST · · Posted by JoeProBono · · 48 replies · · 1,523+ views · · nationalgeographic · |
Seahorses are truly unique, and not just because of their unusual equine shape. Unlike most other fish, they are monogamous and mate for life. Rarer still, they are among the only animal species on Earth in which the male bears the unborn young. Found in shallow tropical and temperate waters throughout the world, these upright-swimming relatives of the pipefish can range in size from 0.6 inches (1.5 centimeters) to 14 inches (35 centimeters) long. Male seahorses are equipped with a brood pouch on their ventral, or front-facing, side. When mating, the female deposits her eggs into his pouch, and the... |
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| Climate | |
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| Arctic Could Face Warmer and Ice-Free Conditions (Pliocene projections - USGS) |
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· 12/29/2009 8:37:20 AM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 61 replies · · 880+ views · · U.S. Geological Survey · · Dec 29, 2009 · · Unknown · |
There is increased evidence that the Arctic could face seasonally ice-free conditions and much warmer temperatures in the future. Scientists documented evidence that the Arctic Ocean and Nordic Seas were too warm to support summer sea ice during the mid-Pliocene warm period (3.3 to 3 million years ago). This period is characterized by warm temperatures similar to those projected for the end of this century, and is used as an analog to understand future conditions. The U.S. Geological Survey found that summer sea-surface temperatures in the Arctic were between 10 to 18°C (50 to 64°F) during the mid-Pliocene, while current... |
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| Glaciation and the Ice Ages | |
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| Soils give clean look at past carbon dioxide: It could take less of the greenhouse gas to reach a... |
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· 12/31/2009 6:51:49 PM PST · · Posted by neverdem · · 47 replies · · 682+ views · · Nature News · · 30 December 2009 · · Richard A. Lovett · |
It could take less of the greenhouse gas to reach a particular level of warming. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels may have been lower in warm eras of the Earth's distant past than once believed, scientists reported this week. The finding raises concern that carbon dioxide levels from fossil fuel burning may, in the near future, be closer to those associated with ancient hothouse climates. More immediately, the work brings one line of palaeoclimate evidence -- that deduced from ancient soils -- into agreement with other techniques for studying past climate. "It makes a major revision to one of the most... |
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| Catastrophism and Astronomy | |
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| North Magnetic Pole Moving East Due to Core Flux |
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· 12/28/2009 4:21:56 PM PST · · Posted by NYer · · 89 replies · · 2,343+ views · · National Geographic · · December 28, 2009 · · Richard A. Lovett · |
Earth's north magnetic pole is racing toward Russia at almost 40 miles (64 kilometers) a year due to magnetic changes in the planet's core, new research says. The core is too deep for scientists to directly detect its magnetic field. But researchers can infer the field's movements by tracking how Earth's magnetic field has been changing at the surface and in space. Now, newly analyzed data suggest that there's a region of rapidly changing magnetism on the core's surface, possibly being created by a mysterious "plume" of magnetism arising from deeper in the core. And it's this region that... |
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| Middle Ages and Renaissance | |
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| Wonders of the World: Chartres Cathedral, France |
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· 01/01/2010 7:36:59 PM PST · · Posted by Steelfish · · 19 replies · · 356+ views · · Telegraph(UK) · · January 01st 2010 · |
The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Chartres is a French gothic masterpiece, writes Emily Craig. The 13th century Chartres Cathedral, the largest cathedral in France, is one of the finest examples of French high Gothic art. Several cathedrals stood on this site from the 10th century onwards, but the building we see today was completed in 1260. It includes several architectural inventions pioneered at Chartres, such as flying buttresses. The cathedral is surmounted by a pair of spires, one Gothic in style, the other an example of... |
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| Oh So Mysteriouso | |
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| William Shakespeare and Fulke Greville |
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· 12/27/2009 3:00:15 AM PST · · Posted by crypt · · 18 replies · · 395+ views · · The Mail · |
The mystery surrounding Lord Brooke Fulke Greville and William Shakespeare is creating huge interest around the World,with many people questioning if William Shakespeare really was the poet Fulke Greville or at the very least Shakespeares Master. |
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| Scotland Yet | |
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| [Battle of] Bannockburn |
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· 01/01/2010 9:55:48 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 1 replies · · 3+ views · · MacBRAVEHEART homepage · · prior to 2010 · · unattributed · |
The battle of Bannockburn was undoubtedly of one of the most spectacular battles of the Scottish Wars of Independence. Although the struggle against the English was to continue for some 13 years more, the Scottish victory was of enormous importance as it secured the future of the throne for Robert Bruce, King of Scots. To avoid confusion, at this point it should be noted that Robert Bruce, shown as a traitor in the film Braveheart, was no such thing. Never on any occasion did Bruce betray Wallace, since in actual fact, Wallace's support lay with the restoration of John Baliol... |
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| Longer Perspectives | |
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| Historical Colonization Was by Countries with Smaller GDP |
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· 12/31/2009 4:02:11 PM PST · · Posted by decimon · · 9 replies · · 170+ views · · Next Big Future · · Dec 30, 2009 · · Brian Wang · |
China and India and other nations had larger GDP but it was Spain, Portugal, France, Netherlands and Britain that were the players in colonizing the Americas. |
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| The Civil War | |
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| When legerdemain is used to pass an unpopular bill |
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· 12/24/2009 12:15:15 AM PST · · Posted by neverdem · · 16 replies · · 671+ views · · Washington Examiner · · December 23, 2009 · · Michael Barone · |
It's time to blow the whistle on two erroneous statements that opponents and proponents of the health care legislation being jammed through Congress have been making. Republicans have been saying that never before has Congress passed such an unpopular bill with such important ramifications by such a narrow majority. Barack Obama has been saying that passage of the bill will mean that the health care issue will be settled once and for all. The Republicans and Obama are both wrong. But perhaps they can be forgiven because the precedent for Congress passing an unpopular bill is an old one, and... |
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| Thoroughly Modern Miscellany | |
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| On the Trail of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid |
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· 01/01/2010 1:05:05 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 19 replies · · 591+ views · · Time · · Thursday, December 31, 2009 · · Jean Friedman-Rudovsky · |
The red canyons and parched planes surrounding the new Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid Memorial Museum might make you think you're in the Old West. But the electrical wiring and a searing altitude headache tell you this is not California circa 1900, but high-up the mountains in present day Bolivia. Here in the tiny town of San Vicente (population 800), the world's most famous outlaws are supposed to have been gunned down 101 years ago, days after robbing the payroll of a Bolivian mine. Offing the bandits would seem to have been sufficient revenge but area residents still think the... |
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| end of digest #285 20100101 | |
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